Jameela Jamil On Instagram's New Diet Products Policy: 'This Is An Issue At Its Peak'

The i Weigh founder tells ELLE U.K. of her relief that the tech giant has listened and made changes to protect young people.

Sep 19, 2019 12:10am

By Olivia Blair and Katie O'Malley

Jameela Jamil's long-running crusade—to regulate the selling and promotion of weight loss products and cosmetic procedures on social media—has just won a major victory.

On September 18, Instagram—which has around one billion users—began rolling out a new policy focused on these very products—detox teas, diet pills, 'appetite-suppressing' lollipops—the list goes on.

Under these new rules, if a post promotes a weight loss product or cosmetic procedure and has a price tag fixed to it, users who are younger than 18-years-old will be prohibited from viewing the post.

The second major policy move is the banning of any content that makes a 'miraculous claim' about diet or weight loss products. So, for example, if an influencer posts a picture of themselves sipping diet tea, promoting their discount code, and telling their followers how they managed to lose 10lbs rapidly solely due to the tea, it will be removed for violating the new community guidelines.

Speaking to ELLE U.K. ahead of the announcement, Jamil said she was thrilled at the changes and excited that corporations, who hold the power monopoly, are putting their foot down.

"It sets the tone that this is not ok in our society," she said. "We have hyper-normalised flogging nonsense to young impressionable people. These people are selling hair growth gummies, but wearing extensions or photoshopping themselves to look slimmer and selling a weight loss shake. There are so many lies being told and we've accepted that as a cultural norm.

"For huge corporations—who are the main access points for these companies to sell their products to young people over the internet—to say they don't condone this sends out a huge ripple across the earth. It says that if giant corporations are willing to take a stand against this then it must be really serious."

Fans of the i_weigh founder—a body positivity platform where people are encouraged to list all their values beyond their aesthetic—will know she has long campaigned for such regulations to be introduced.

Jamil has frequently called out celebrities and influencers who have promoted diet products, by blasting the lack of scientific evidence behind their claims, as well a subconscious messaging for followers to change themselves. She has also used her own experience of having an eating disorder when she was growing up to remind people of the devastating effects of this constant messaging.

After The Good Place actress launched a petition to 'Stop Celebrities Promoting toxic Diet Products On Social Media' (which was signed by more than 250,000 people), she met with Instagram who were also concerned by such advertising.

"The issue is at its peak because, in my day, you'd have to search for ages to find this toxic information, but now it finds you because of algorithms that know your age, sex and what you're into," she explains. "Therefore it's the worst it's ever been. Teenage suicides, eating disorder rates, the amount having cosmetic surgery and committing self-harm - they are all at the highest they've ever been. There's no way this isn't a correlation with what they're being exposed to online."

Instagram say they listened to the likes of Jamil and other campaigners while also encouraging community feedback, speaking to youth specialists and working with experts like Dr. Ysabel Gerrard, a lecturer in digital media and society at the University of Sheffield, to formulate this policy change.

For those concerned that this type of content ban should go beyond the age of 18, Instagram say they didn't want the new measures to branch into censorship, it's about protecting under 18s. The new regulation is in line with several changes the platform has made over the past few years to curtail the pressure associated with social media, for example introducing screen time limits and testing removing the 'like' function in some countries.

For Jamil, she has her own advice too on how to make the platform more positive. She credits Instagram for championing the success of i_weigh, a nice place to be and heroes other campaigners like Tess Holliday and Ashley Graham for saying they are sick of the status quo.

"Curate your space. Just like as in your personal life, you have to do that online,' she advises. 'I don't follow models, people who sell weight loss products, or anyone who makes me feel bad about the way I look, live my life or if I have enough money.

"Anyone who makes me feel bad about myself or my life I mute, block or delete. You have the power; we've become used to thinking we have to follow these people who lie to us, don't care about us or our physical or mental health, they just our want money."

Over the next few weeks, Instagram will roll out an additional function so you can report a post if you think it violates the new guidelines.